Zalán Szakács

Beyond expressing a message, a feeling or a criticism, artists have the ability to create bubbles through which we can experience another reality, of which we are not aware. Zalán Szakács is interested in obscure subjects, bordering on the strange and mysterious. Through his immersive installations and performances, he tells us stories that are nonetheless very real; invisible and untouchable, his works alert all our senses, in a breach of space-time.

Originally from Târgu Mureș in Transylvania, Romania, Zalán leaves the country at the age of twelve to move to Austria, and attend school in Vienna. He continues his higher education at the Design Academy in Eindhoven where he dabbles in architecture, film, storytelling and media design. After graduating in media and communications, he enters the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam for a master's degree in media design and experimental publishing. There he learns about different types of codes, how to integrate the responsibility of the artist in all stages of the creative process, and how to make it public. He learns to take a critical look at technology, to understand its evolution and its influence on society and politics. For his graduation project in 2019, Zalán seeks to combine his interests in media archaeology and visual performance.

He set his sights on magic lanterns, the ancestor of the projector; based on the same principle as slides, they allow painted images to be projected onto glass plates using the camera obscura system. The source of artificial light comes from an oil lamp or candle, passes through the plate and then the lens, which consists of a concave lens, in order to project the painted image upside down. While doing his research, Zalán comes across the mysterious world of phantasmagoria, but his curiosity is further aroused when he discovers that it is in fact a primitive form of audio-visual performance. Its particularity is that the projection is done on a canvas or smoke, and its subjects are macabre. The projections take place in a closed space, in the dark, reminiscent of seances. Very popular in Paris at the end of the 18th century, the messages of the subjects dealt with were closely linked to the French Revolution and more generally to the political instability of the time. The audience goes there to experience something out of the ordinary, to experience the horror and to be able to laugh about it, while at the same time feeling safe. Zalán finds this balance interesting and decides to turn it into a project: Eigengrau.

At this time, he develops methods of media archaeology, examining theoretical texts, interviewing experts, visiting archives and museums that have original magic lanterns and slides in their collections. His aim is to understand the world behind these devices, from the mechanical functioning to the psychological impact on the individual, and more widely on society. He then finds a way to apply it to our time, as if he were translating a dead language into a living one. Zalán is very interested in the culture of the screen, which is often treated as a medium, in this case smoke. He wants to use it himself as a medium in a dark space, for the narrative of his work. He is experimenting with LED technology and looking for a way to spatialise the sound that will be associated with it. The sound environment is designed by Sébastien Robert who is researching the origin of the sounds used during the phantasmagorias.

Zalán knows his subject, his medium and knows what technology to incorporate into his project. He designs 3-metre diameter LED circles whose light creates immaterial walls that the public can walk through, all in an enclosed, dark space. The smoke and the high-pitched sound used in the installation contribute to its mystical character, the visitors who move around are only silhouettes. For the artist, Eigengrau is his first large-scale project, for which he is working with a multidisciplinary group (sound design, choreography, smell design, product design, production, architecture, video and photography).

Zalán is passionate about creating situations in which we lose track of time and space. According to him, living these experiences allows us to reconnect with ourselves and provoke feelings that we do not experience in ordinary life. Darkness is perceived differently by each individual, both metaphorically and scientifically; the singular feeling of being in the dark, but also the shapes that appear when our vision becomes accustomed to it. He is also interested in the link between feelings, the body and the work; although free to interpret, the work works if it provokes a specific feeling. Zalán also experiments personally; he trains in lucid dreaming, and does sensory isolation sessions that usually put the body in a state of tranquillity, and let the mind wander. He is inspired by his personal feelings and conveys them in his work, while allowing the audience to explore their own feelings.

For each project, Zalán finds an opportunity to add depth to the immersive dimension, and to test new experiences. For one of his recent projects, Lichtspiel, he researches the use of magic lanterns before phantasmagoria; by analysing every element in the lantern representations and translating 17th century manuscripts, he learns that they were used for propaganda purposes by the Jesuits. He then seeks to deconstruct the mechanism of the lantern and reproduce the spiritual atmosphere in a new installation; an enclosed space that invites mediation, even lucid dreaming, through the sensation created by the light coming from outside. After experimenting himself in order to understand the qualities of the light, Zalán entered in a conversation with a physicist ; the aim is to reproduce the effect of oil lamps with LEDs, and to determine the locations of the light sources and lenses.

On a different note, the artist also completed a project commissioned by a hospital in the Netherlands, for which he had to push his limits; Gloed, which means “glow” in German, is supposed to last 25 years, and he cannot use strobe lights, smoke or low sounds, elements he usually uses. So he finds new ways to materialise his work and collaborates with a company that produces recycled acrylic sheets. These will be placed near a bay window in the entrance hall, allowing natural light to strike the sheets and make patterns appear on the floor, which will change according to the time of day. This time, he is referring to leadlight technique, and once again, is evolving his palette of immaterial mediums.

Today, Zalán is focusing on the realisation of his latest project Tisztás, exhibiting his work between the Netherlands, Austria, Romania and Hungary, and working on the construction of an inflatable pavilion at the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, entirely dedicated to Eigengrau.

Phantasmagoria was a starting point for the exploration of illusory spaces, forgotten technologies, and spiritual experience.

From the smoke to the smells and the light, Zalán takes us into a unique universe, like a journey to a place where time has stopped.